


Patched Together

by 100percentfluffster



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: BAMF Eudora Patch, Klaus Hargreeves Deserves Better, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Patch deserved better, Protective Ben Hargreeves, Protective Eudora Patch, Slight Luther bashing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-27
Updated: 2019-03-27
Packaged: 2019-12-18 17:02:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18254108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/100percentfluffster/pseuds/100percentfluffster
Summary: What if Klaus helped Patch in that hotel room? What if Cha Cha didn't shoot her?What if Klaus and her ran away with the briefcase? What if Patch got stuck in 1968 in the middle of the Vietnam War right alongside Klaus?





	Patched Together

**Author's Note:**

> This is more of an idea than a real fic but I liked it

Klaus was still dizzy from slamming his head into the table repeatedly in his desperate attempt to gain the attention of someone outside. He hadn’t expected it to actually work, but then walked in an angel, his savior. 

She pulled a gun on Hazel and Klaus stumbled as far from the gun and his kidnapper as possible. Ben was urging him to run, to get away, and Klaus wanted nothing more than to do just that, but something didn’t feel right. 

Klaus saw the grate of the vent and he flailed out towards it, seeing it as the exit he needed. The grate fell away easily and inside a briefcase awaited him. He looked around the room in confusion and half dazed terror. He saw a glimpse of Hazel getting on his knees and wasn’t that a beautiful and completely non-sexual image. But where was the other one? The scarier one. 

Klaus knew something wasn’t right and his angel was in danger. The other ghosts around the room were looking outside, through the door that his savior was standing in front of. They were murmuring in their many languages, but he understood enough. He grabbed the suitcase, and ignoring Ben, moved back to the door. He barely saw a flash of movement before he was reacting, swinging the surprisingly heavy briefcase up and into the gun aimed at the oblivious detective’s back. A shot went off and he felt a jolt in the briefcase but no pain. He struck out with his impromptu weapon again and more by accident than skill managed to smash the corner of the case into Cha Cha’s temple. The darker woman crumpled to the ground with a shout of pain and surprise.

Hazel was already up and moving again so Klaus just grabbed the detective lady’s hand and ran through the door. She didn’t attempt to pull out from his grip, and after just a couple steps became the one pulling him along. He hadn’t eaten in two days and his withdrawal was hitting hard and everything around him was moving much faster than he could comprehend. 

She pulled him around a corner and he belatedly noted the sounds of gunfire and cursing. She pulled him further away from the noise and he didn’t protest it. Ben kept yelling at him to keep running, so he forced himself to put one foot in front of the other. 

He didn’t know how long he’d run for but she eventually stopped and pushed him to the ground behind a car. He looked unseeingly at his hand that was still somehow curled around the handle of the briefcase. He was free. He’d survived. Somehow. 

Ben called his names several times before Klaus managed to pull away from whatever disassociation he was plummeting through. “What?” he asked his brother, eyes still stuck to the case in his hand. 

“You’re Diego’s brother, yeah? Are you okay?” 

Klaus blinked five more times before he realized the woman was talking to him. He looked up at her and tried to focus on her face but his vision was blurring and dark spots danced around the edges. Concussion from the table no doubt. Or the torture. One or the other. Both? “Who are you?” Klaus managed to slur. 

“Detective Patch. Friend of Diego’s,” she replied with what seemed to be a concerned but genuine smile. 

“You're his lady cop friend?” Klaus asked in surprise. He hadn’t expected someone so… soft looking. He had no doubt that she could kill him without breaking a sweat, but she definitely wouldn’t, which was surprising. Though was it? Diego was a teddy bear at heart, really. 

She gave a slightly less genuine smile at that comment but nodded her head. “It would appear so. Are you okay?” 

Klaus grimaced and leaned his head back on the car behind him. “I’ve been better, that’s for sure. What about my dear kidnappers? Are they dead? Did you kill them?” He tried really hard to remember but only got a faint sense of panic. 

She pressed the back of her hand against his forehead and it reminded him strongly of Mom. He pressed into the contact without thought. He glanced at Ben to find him watching their surroundings intently. Klaus figured his favorite brother would warn them if the dynamic duo came around and he focused back on Patch. 

“They’re certainly still alive, but so are we. You saved my life.” Patch pulled her hand away and Klaus forced a whimper back down his throat. 

Then her words caught up to him and he gave a shaky grin. “Yeah? Do me a favor and tell my brothers that when we see ‘em, ‘kay?” 

“Oh, don’t worry, I will. Diego will be hearing some choice words from me, that’s for sure.” Patch was digging in her pockets for something and Klaus just closed his eyes and tried to steady the movement of the world. He was pretty sure they weren’t moving anymore, so he figured maybe if he concentrated hard enough he could get the ground to stop moving too. 

He opened them a moment later when Patch pulled out a small flashlight from her pocket. She shined it in his eyes and just chuckled at his whines, which was nicer than the eye roll Ben gave. Klaus smiled at Patch and when she returned it he decided that she was, in fact, an angel. He was actually only half certain she was even really there. “You absolutely have a concussion. If we can get to the nearest precinct, I can get you to the hospital and make sure the rest of you will make it out of this in one piece, okay?” 

Klaus’ stomach gave a violent tug at the thought of the hospital. Every hospital he’d ever been to had been crawling with the dead, and right now he was far too sober for something like that. Instead of answering, he just looked back at his lap. It was the easiest way to avoid answering Patch’s unasked question and Ben’s knowing gaze. 

The briefcase was still there. He sighed and pulled it to himself. “What do you think is in here, Detective?” he mused out loud. “It’s heavy as fuck, so maybe it’s like gold. Or treasure.” Patch chuckled and shifted to kneel next to him so she could see over the car. She put a steadying hand on his shoulder, though if it was for him or her was unclear, and scanned their surroundings for psychopathic time agents with masks. Klaus opened the briefcase as he looked up at Ben with a grin. Then there was a flash of blue and a truly terrifying moment of nothingness where he felt like he was being compressed into an atom and then spun across space. 

Then he was falling three feet to the ground with a gasp. The briefcase fell out of his hand and to the ground. In the same instant he felt something fall half on him and half on the briefcase. He let out a pained grunt and blinked up at the ceiling of what looked like a tent. 

“Klaus?” Patch’s voice croaked out somewhere to his left. He turned to find her sprawled on top of him and the case, and approximately two feet away from the most handsome man he’d ever seen. When did he get there? 

Then the sound of a bomb exploding in the not too distant vicinity made the area around him erupt into action. There was yelling and lots of moving and Patch’s frantic panicked voice in his ear. Pants were thrust into his hand and he was being ushered away with the briefcase once again in one hand and Patch’s nimble fingers curled around his wrist. 

“Klaus?! What the hell is happening?” she was whispering to him over and over again, but Klaus didn’t know. It was dark and chaotic and so very very loud. And he couldn’t find Ben. Anywhere. 

Everything moved really fast after that. 

They were in Vietnam. Somehow. He and Patch had been shoved into the year 1968, in the middle of a goddamn war. The 173rd Airborne had no idea what to do with them, but since Patch had single-handedly saved all their asses fifteen minutes after meeting them with her deadly aim, and Klaus somehow always knew where they were thanks to his ability to ask dead spirits directions, they just gave them uniforms and didn't ask too many questions. 

They tried the briefcase every day, but Patch’s fall on top of it had damaged something inside and they couldn’t go back. Though every day it seemed to glow a slightly brighter blue. It kept their hopes up.

Patch proved that she was an angel once again when she took it all in stride. She was stuck with a junkie out of time that could see the dead and had no filter and a lot of withdrawal symptoms. She was stuck in a platoon of male soldiers that she didn’t know. She had no idea how she got to the past or how to get back. But she just pulled her hair back into a ponytail and learned to shoot a rifle instead of a handgun. 

Klaus learned a lot about Patch in those ten months. She was smart and fast and didn’t mind that Klaus never really shut up. She was a crack shot with pretty much any gun but had a bleeding heart. She loved to joke but didn’t pull her metaphorical (or actual) punches. She stood up for Klaus while berating his dumb decisions. Honestly, she reminded him a lot of Ben. 

Ben. He missed Ben. He’d never been without Ben for longer than a day since his brother died. Twelve years stuck side by side and suddenly that comforting sarcastic shadow was completely gone. Patch helped, but it wasn’t the same. 

Then there was Dave. Beautiful strong Dave who helped Klaus through the chaos of war and taught him how to shoot. Who danced and drank with Klaus and never called him a liar when Klaus talked about his family. Who believed Klaus could see ghosts before he’d proved it. Dave, who Klaus followed to the front lines. 

Patch had been grim-faced when Klaus had told her he was going with Dave but hadn’t disagreed. She’d just looked Klaus in the eye and said, “If we’re stuck here for the time being, we might as well do something worthwhile, right? Just don’t die in the name of love, okay?” 

Patch had smiled when Klaus had then told her they were bringing Dave with them when they went back to their time. “Wouldn’t have it any other way, lover boy,” she said. “You can rub your nice male specimen in Diego’s face when we get back, how’s that sound?” Klaus had laughed and hugged her and opened the briefcase but the blue light still flickered and nothing happened. 

Then two months later Dave died. Something inside Klaus died with him. 

He missed Ben. More than anything. He wanted his brother back. He wanted Dave back. He wanted Patch to stop looking so haunted and defeated. He wanted to forget everything that had happened since he opened the briefcase, but Patch picked him up and pulled him along with their regiment. They continued to fight and Klaus slipped Dave’s dog tags around his neck. He thought of Ben and opened the briefcase every night with a desperate hope to escape the war. He remembered how desperate he’d been to escape that motel room so many months back. This felt so much worse. He didn’t know how much more he could take. 

A month after Dave’s death and the briefcase finally spat them back out into their time. He and Patch sat blinking, shell shocked, on a moving bus. Patch grabbed his hand and squeezed so hard that Klaus couldn’t doubt that it was real. He looked at her and saw such barenaked relief that it made his heart crack even further. 

Then he cried. He cried for Dave and for all the friends they’d made and lost to war and time. He cried for the bullet wound scars Patch now bore in her left thigh. He cried for the knife wound that scarred his own shoulder. He cried because they’d made it out of the war but everyone else didn’t. 

They stumbled off the bus together, just as they’d stumbled through the last ten months together. He thought of the matching Sky Soldiers tattoos they bore on their shoulders and laughed around the broken and jagged pieces of his heart rattling around in his chest. 

He heard Patch laugh that same way as Klaus destroyed the briefcase in a fit of rage and denial. They cried some more as he led her through the streets towards the Academy. He found Ben on the front steps of the school and Klaus finally felt like he was home, his brother was back. Patch didn’t bat an eyelash when Klaus fell to the ground and instantly began a teary one-sided conversation with the front steps. She just sat down, put her head in her hands, and waited. One hand sometimes reaching out to check on Klaus. 

They took turns taking baths and then they sat side by side on Klaus’ bedroom floor. No words needed to be said between them. They just focused on breathing. 

Patch had her eyes closed as if she could block out everything, but Klaus barely dared to blink, too terrified of Ben disappearing once again. “How long were you gone?” Ben asked with a furrow of his brow. “You’ve been missing for like twenty hours.” 

“Ten months, man,” Klaus managed to say through the lump in his throat. “Ten fucking months.” 

Klaus watched Ben look at Patch and him and he couldn’t for the life of him figure out what his brother was thinking, but god he’d missed Ben. Klaus had never wanted to hug his dead brother so badly. Instead, he curled his arms around his torso and bit his lip hard enough to distract himself even the smallest amount from that nearly overwhelming desire, and just watched Ben watch him. He’d lost Dave but he’d gotten Ben back. 

“God, I missed you,” Klaus said, barely loud enough to even constitute a whisper. 

Ben smiled sadly but proud and replied, “I’m worth missing.” 

Klaus chuckled and finally let his eyes slide shut as the exhaustion of war pulled him alarmingly fast toward unconsciousness. “Hell yeah, you are, bro.” 

  
  
  


________________________________________________

  
  


 

Klaus had disappeared in a flash of blue along with the detective, and for a moment Ben just stood there looking at the spot where’d they’d been. It was a long moment of complete bafflement where his mind just failed to comprehend the change in scenery. 

Then the panic set in. He checked around the car, under the car, in the car. He checked the parking lot they were in, the motel room they’d run from, and the entire block twice. Klaus was gone. His brother, his best friend, his one real tether to the world of the living had just vanished. 

He wandered aimlessly for a couple of hours as the panic and loss started to seep into his bones. Being dead was like being submerged in freezing water, everything was muted and far away, but the grief and terror wracking his mind felt more real and alive than anything else he’d felt other than his own death. He could feel the phantom movement of the ‘horror’ inside him, something he’d thought he’d forgotten. 

The worst part was that he didn’t even know what had happened. Was Klaus dead? Had Ben blanked out and Klaus had left? No, Klaus would have come back for him. Was Klaus taken? Again?

It took him close to four hours to even remember the briefcase. Then he remembered the flash of blue and he thought of Five. So he headed back to the Academy, hoping that maybe something would make sense along the way. But when he got there it was to find that, of course, no one had even noticed that Klaus had gone missing. That they were all moping about and lashing out at one another. Klaus had always been the only sibling willing to actually extend a hand to anyone. 

Ben followed Luther around for a while only to watch him and Diego team up to try and find Five. Because they could work together to find one missing brother, but not the other? Ben knew that Klaus was a loose cannon and that he was hard to keep track of, but no one seemed the least concerned about him. It was beyond disappointing. 

Ben had been with Klaus for more than a decade, and he knew that Klaus was a mess, but he was also caring and kind. Klaus would pawn anything remotely valuable for drug money but would also steal food for the homeless. Klaus treated rehab like a mini vacation but would genuinely work with his bunkmates to help keep them clean and healthy. Klaus would hiss at Ben and throw tantrums, but would also go to the movies Ben wanted to see and steal library books for him. Klaus would spend afternoons painting his nails and turning the pages of those books for Ben. Klaus was a bad citizen and a good person. He was a great brother but a terrible person. But at least Klaus was real and genuine and kind. 

And now Klaus was gone. And Ben couldn’t find him. After being so close to him for so long it felt like missing a limb. No, it felt like missing reality altogether. Ben had to wonder what would happen to him now. He knew that his connection to Klaus allowed him more stability than the average ghost. He wondered when he’d turn into a screaming wraith, after weeks or months or years? Should he follow Diego around now? Would other ghosts be able to help him? How the hell was he supposed to do this without Klaus? 

Ben just sat on the front steps of the Academy and wished he could throw something. Wished he could ask Five what the hell Hazel and Cha Cha wanted. What the briefcase was for. Where Klaus was. 

Then Klaus was back and Ben felt like the world started spinning again. He saw the moment Klaus saw him and watched in amazement as his brother just sort of… fell into himself. He’d seen Klaus collapse from withdrawal and highs, seen him OD and nearly starve himself, but this felt different. It felt rawer. When Klaus looked at him he looked haunted in a completely different sense than normal. Like Klaus had been drowning for years and just now given air. 

Ben didn’t understand a lot of what Klaus said but he tried to talk his brother through whatever was happening. Ben glanced at Patch, who was carrying a similar weariness. He watched her touch Klaus periodically in an effort to keep tabs on him. Then Klaus started to finally slow down. His blabbering became individual words that formed sentences that created a story nearly unbelievable but for the honesty shining in those tear-filled eyes. Ben started to understand what had happened. Klaus had fought a war without him. 

Ben pushed down that initial jealousy toward Patch and instead focused on Klaus. His brother was covered in dirt and tragedy. Ben wanted to help, but all he could do was convince Klaus to get up and go inside. To take Patch with him and to get themselves clean. Ben could only hope that he could help Klaus weather this storm too. They’d been through a lot by now. They could get through whatever this was too. 

As the two war-torn time travelers moved together and around each other, Ben started to realize that maybe it wouldn’t just be him and Klaus anymore. This Patch seemed to genuinely care about Klaus too. Though they’d been together for ten months apparently. In war. That had to build a connection. Ben found himself a strange combination of jealous and relieved that Klaus now had someone else in his corner. Someone alive even. Maybe she could say the things he’d been itching to, stand up for Klaus when he needed it. 

He watched the two of them fall asleep on the floor of Klaus’ childhood room and Ben smiled for the first time since Klaus disappeared. Not the disbelieving and relieved grin from when Klaus had appeared, or the grimace at the blood covering his brother, or even the frown at Klaus’ clear pain. This was just a pure smile. One of happiness and joy and appreciation. Yeah, Ben was dead, but he had his brother back and that was enough. 

Patch woke up before Klaus, which was vaguely alarming since Klaus was normally the lightest sleeper Ben had ever seen. She looked down at Klaus with a bittersweet smile and she reached over to brush a hand across his forehead with a familiarity that spoke volumes. Without looking up she said to the room, “Ben, I have to go. I may have been gone for ten months, but the precinct doesn’t know that. Tell Klaus where I am, he’ll worry.” After a moment she looked up, nowhere near Ben, and added, “Please.” 

Ben smiled and nodded his head though he knew she couldn’t see him. It was amazing to finally be acknowledged by someone who wasn’t Klaus, even if she couldn’t actually see or sense him. She believed in him and in Klaus. It was refreshing. She gave another sad smile and quietly left the room, closing the door behind her. Ben settled in to wait for Klaus to wake up, for another day of watching and snarking loudly for only his brother to hear. 

Ben contemplated Klaus as he waited. He was tanner and more muscled. There were a few more scars littering Klaus’ bare chest and a tattoo on his shoulder and his stomach. Dog tags around his neck. The most notable difference was the way he was sleeping though. Klaus always slept sprawled out, no matter where it was. His bed, a stranger’s bed, an alleyway, rehab, hospital. But now he slept more stiffly like he was ready to jump to attention at any time. And Ben figured that made sense, he’d been sleeping in a war zone for months, but the difference still made him sad. One of the things that Ben had always thought made Klaus who he was, was that nonchalant way of taking up too much space. The silent yet undeniable way Klaus shouted fuck you to the world with his body language even when he was asleep or high out of his mind. 

Ben wondered what else had changed over the time they’d been separated. Had war changed Klaus for the worse? Could anything really make Klaus into something he didn’t want to be? Their father hadn’t. He’d drilled a terror of the dead into Klaus, but the man hadn’t managed to break Klaus’ spirit. His mind maybe, but not his person. Klaus still wore skirts and heels and makeup despite Reginald’s hatred of them. Klaus still loved fiercely and protectively no matter how much Reginald had tried to harden the boy. Klaus still refused to harm anyone in spite of the hours of combat training he had from their childhood. Although perhaps that was different now, because war calls for hurting people. 

Ben just sighed and decided not to think about it anymore. Klaus was Klaus and they’d deal with the aftereffects of the war. They would. Together. 

When Klaus woke up his eyes immediately scanned the room in confusion and then relief and then realization. At first Ben thought that realization was because Klaus was back home and safe. But a moment later and Klaus was collapsing back into himself and Ben didn’t know why. 

“Patch?” Klaus asked the empty room with defeat already lacing each letter. 

“Work, dude. She’s got a job, you know,” Ben said with a purposeful lightness. 

Klaus nodded to himself and pushed against the floor until he was sitting upright, mostly at least, and then he cried. Ben crouched on the ground nearby and wondered what he could do. Crying was allowed, it was expected even, but Klaus seemed to be crying over Patch’s absence. “What’s wrong?” Ben eventually asked, feeling very wrong footed. 

“Nothing. I mean, what did I expect?” Klaus said with burning self deprecation. “Of course, she’d leave. There’s nothing tying her to me anymore, she can finally be free from the useless junkie.” 

Ah. Ben understood now. “She didn’t leave you, she told me to tell you she was going to work. She’ll be back.” 

Klaus didn’t seem to hear him though. “God, what a mess.” Klaus flinched at something, perhaps a memory, and then Ben watched something in Klaus’ head click away from the moment. Watched a distance appear in Klaus’ eyes that scared Ben. His brother was no longer here with him. The thousand yard stare was looking back at Ben and he didn’t know what to do. 

Ben tried to talk to him but Klaus seemed to be zoned out completely. Nearly twenty minutes later Klaus jerked back to himself and Ben heaved a huge sigh of relief. Klaus glanced at him with wide scared eyes, but at least they were actually seeing him. “You’re back.” Ben meant in the moment, but it could also be understood as back in the right time. Ben preferred both ways. 

Klaus groaned and rubbed at his eyes with shaking hands. “Fuck!” he said emphatically. Ben just hummed in agreement. Then Klaus was up and rooting around the room with a frenzied panic that Ben was all too familiar with. 

“Don’t do it, Klaus,” Ben said with no inflection. 

Klaus laughed maniacally and replied, “Do you know how long I’ve been fucking sober, Ben? It’s hard as shit to find anything worth my time in the middle of a goddamn war. I drank as much as I could when I found it, but other than that…” Klaus paused in his search of his room and sighed heavily like the world had disappointed him for the last time. “So many dead soldiers around me and half the time I couldn’t even tell what was real and what wasn’t. Patch helped but…” 

Patch helped but now she’s gone. Ben wanted to strangle Klaus. “She’s coming back!” Ben tried to stand between Klaus and the dresser he was currently systematically destroying, but Klaus just reached through him. It tingled and made him even angrier about being dead. “Damn it, Klaus, listen to me! Patch didn’t leave!” 

“Well, she’s not here, brother mine.” 

“Okay, she left the house, but she didn’t leave you. You really think she’d abandon you after ten months of keeping your ass alive?” Ben once again wondered if Klaus was good at being a soldier. He certainly had the conviction and love to be a brother in arms, but to be an actual soldier? He didn’t know. Couldn’t picture it, but Klaus was good at defying expectation. 

Klaus fingers stopped their rifling for a moment to run softly across the tattoo on his shoulder, but then Klaus scoffed and turned around to start tearing apart his bed. Ben knew for a fact that there was a small stash of pills inside the second pillow, but he certainly wasn’t going to say that to Klaus. 

Unfortunately, his brother was like a K9 unit when it came to narcotics and soon the small bag of pills was in Klaus’ shaking hands. Klaus looked at Ben and there was a strange pleading in that gaze that made every protective instinct in Ben come out. Klaus had been some amount of sober for months now and he hadn’t been there to help. But he was here now. “Klaus, come on, you’re better than this!” 

Klaus’ expression shuttered and he turned away. He pulled out two large circular pills from the bag and Ben knew he’d said the wrong thing. “No, Ben, I’m not. Couldn’t keep Dave alive and can’t make or keep friends.” 

“Dave and your fellow soldiers obviously didn’t agree, Klaus! They loved you!” 

“And now they’re gone! Just like Patch!” 

“I like the sober you!” Ben tried. “Dave liked the sober you!” 

“You didn’t even know Dave,” Klaus said petulantly, but the hand holding the pills didn’t move closer to his mouth. 

“You could introduce us!” Ben said, clawing for a reason for Klaus to stay sober. He didn’t want to watch Klaus’ body twitch and spasm through the high. Or watch those eyes grow distant once again. 

Klaus froze, every muscle stopped moving. Ben wasn’t breathing for obvious reasons, but if he was alive he was sure he would have stopped. “I can’t. I’ve been trying for the last month. I can’t conjure him.” 

“Maybe because you were too scared,” Ben offered. “It’s obvious you feel some form of responsibility for his death.” 

“I was there, Ben! Right next to him!” Klaus shouted, muscles unlocked and flailing in distress. “It should have been me!” 

“No. He wouldn’t have wanted you dead, Klaus!” 

“But I do!” Klaus said with an alarmingly soft tone and volume. Ben looked into Klaus’ eyes and saw nothing but despair. Ten months can make a hell of a difference. Losing a loved one can too. It reminded him a lot of those first few months after Ben died and Klaus could barely look at him. Ben had been terrified that entire first year of Klaus following him into death. 

Klaus stuffed the pills in his mouth faster than Ben thought he’d be capable of moving and Ben didn’t think he could stand watching the old pattern happen again. He lashed out, wanting nothing more than to grab the pills and sit Klaus down for some food and a good therapeutic conversation. He knew it would be futile, knew he had no control over this plane of existence, so he packed all his frustration into a punch and swung for Klaus’ cheek. 

Instead of that tell tale tingle as his ghostly form came in contact with Klaus’ living vessel, Ben felt his hand hit Klaus. Physically hit him. They both watched in wonder as the pills went flying out of Klaus’ mouth and across the room. Ben’s hand tingled but in a warmer more real way. There was no pain in his knuckles like a punch to a cheekbone should give him, but it wasn’t empty like normal either. Ben immediately reached back out to try and touch Klaus again but his hands went straight through that pale skin. 

“You just Patrick Swayzed me!” Klaus said. “How did you do that?” 

Ben paused, because he couldn’t have done that. He wasn’t the one with control over ghosts. “I don’t think I did. I think you did.” 

“As touching as this is, maybe... I can’t really tell, what the hell just happened?” Patch asked in clear bafflement. 

Klaus and Ben both spun in place to look at the detective leaning in the doorway. She was looking at Klaus with worry and Ben smiled at that. “Did you see that?” Klaus asked as he stumbled across the room and over to the open door where Patch was. She caught him by the shoulder with one hand and tried to fix his hair with the other. Ben snorted. 

“I just opened the door to see you spitting pills across the room and then talking to air. Air that I assume is Ben.” Patch’s eyes narrowed in belated realization and she turned to look at the white pills on the ground. Then she shook her head and just said, “Nu uh, nope, not happening. Let’s go, Klaus.” She grabbed his hand and started pulling him away from the room and out into the long hallway. 

“What?” Klaus asked, still in shock. 

“You’ll never manage to conjure Dave if you start with that shit again, and honestly I prefer sober you more. He’s less strung out and he appreciates my jokes more.” Ben really wanted to high five this woman. 

Luther’s large frame turned the corner as Patch did and she ran straight into his huge chest. “What?” she asked as she backed up a step. 

“Klaus!” Luther said in his constantly disapproving voice. “Where have you been? Family meeting now!” Luther then saw Patch and just frowned down at her. “Who are you?” He turned back to glare at Klaus, “Don’t bring your junkie friends into the house, Klaus! Just because dad is dead doesn’t mean you can--” 

“Excuse me?” Patch interrupted. Ben grinned so wide he would be worried about his health if he was still alive. “Who the hell are you to talk to him like that?” 

Luther looked discomfited and he cleared his throat. “I’m Number One and his brother and--” 

“Oh, right. Number One. I read about you in your sister’s book. I’ve heard about you too. Not sure which was worse, to be honest. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’re going to get some fucking ice cream.” Patch pushed Luther to the side, who only allowed the forced movement because of his blatant surprise. 

Once Klaus and Patch had gotten a few steps passed him however he jolted back into action. He grabbed Klaus by the back of the neck and pulled him towards himself. Ben yelled in anger and uselessly batted at Luther’s arm with his incorporeal form. 

Patch was there too though and she grabbed Luther’s hand, her fingertips digging into the space between thumb and index finger and Luther yanked back in pain and away from the small woman. “What the hell!” he shouted. 

“Don’t you dare touch him,” Patch replied with bite but no raised volume. 

“He’s my brother and I--” 

“So because you’re family it’s okay for you to hurt him? No wonder this family fell apart.” Patch didn’t wait for a reply she just gently took Klaus’ hand and led him down the hallway and away from Luther. 

Ben watched Luther’s stunned facial expression turn into anger and then back into confusion. It was satisfying. When he ran to catch up with Patch and Klaus a few moments later, he found the relieved and confused grin that Klaus gave him even more satisfying. It would be great to have someone around who could give Klaus the physical comfort and kicks in the ass that Ben couldn’t. 

Or hadn’t at least. Maybe now he could. The feeling of Klaus’ jaw underneath his hand was still vivid in his mind. The future was looking good. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Again, this is more of an idea, so if this gave anyone ideas for a longer story or something else, run with it, my dude. This is a cool idea and I'd love to read about supportive but badass Patch and her attempts to help Klaus help himself. Love the idea of her meeting Ben. Of maybe running into Diego and the potential there. Idk. I just couldn't sleep without this idea getting out of my head.


End file.
